Mexican Flag Exhibit in Strasbourg
Year: 2022 / Client: Rediseño México, Mexican Mission to the Council of Europe, City of Strasbourg, Instituto Cultural de México en Francia / Tools: Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, WordPress
Originally planned for summer 2020, the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the Council of Europe, the City of Strasbourg and Lieu d’Europe organised the exhibit Un Nouvel Imaginaire pour le Mexique, based on my flag design project for Rediseño México to celebrate the Mission’s 20-year presence in the city. Installed in the gardens of Lieu d’Europe, the exhibit was available to the public from 7 August to 15 September 2021.
To mark the occasion, I redrew all 32 flags and updated half of them into new designs that better synthesize the state they represent but, considering the audience is far removed from the symbols and history that shape the Mexican identity, the exhibit needed to bring a much broader perspective into the vast diversity of my home country. Once each flag design was documented, the team at Lieu d’Europe adapted the texts to French from the Spanish and English originals I provided.
Then, I created all the display materials for the exhibit: the project’s presentation, the basics of flag design, the visual language developed to create a family of flags, the historical and linguistic contexts of Mexican society and 32 state profiles. A total of 40, big-format prints, 1000 brochures and a dozen posters were sent to the City of Strasbourg press, which handled all the production and its costs.
On 3 August, the gallery at Lieu d’Europe closed for the exhibit’s montage, which took over 8 hours to complete. The main challenges were to mount the 32-flag ensemble on the main wall as they form the Mexican territory (which is the main visual on the brochures and posters) and to set up the 32-state profiles on a grid next to the flag family. By August 4, the exhibit’s website went online, showcasing all of its contents for visitors to see on their mobile phones. Every state profile included a QR code that brought them to their dedicated pages; the website also included directions to the exhibit in Strasbourg and the pop-up window exhibit at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Paris, which had the same flag ensemble on display throughout August. During the weekends, I spent time at the gallery to give guided tours to visitors and school groups in Spanish, English and French.
After a break, I produced 2 videos to promote the exhibit, the first of the main set-up in Strasbourg, and one of the window pop-up in Paris. The exhibit’s main event happened on 10 September 2021 to welcome the diplomatic community in Strasbourg and to commemorate the Mexican Day of Independence. I also had t-shirts and postcards made for the occasion.
